St. Patricks Cathedral — St. Patricksrock

Roughly centrally placed on the summit of a prominent rock outcrop overlooking the town of Cashel (TS061-025----) c. 300m to the S-SE. An earlier Romanesque chapel (TS061-025001-) is located in the external angle between the choir and the S transept and a high cross (TS061-025006-) lies c. 10m SW of the W angle of the S transept, though the latter's original position may have been 10m from the N portal of the Romanesque chapel (O'Keeffe 2003, 127-8). The cathedral is constructed of limestone rubble, roughly coursed. It is cruciform in plan, comprising a long choir and short nave, a N and S transept, off which run a number of side chapels, a crossing tower at the junction of nave and choir, and a tower house built onto the W end of the nave. There are a large number of altar tombs and wall memorials within the cathedral, the majority of which date from the 16th century. The main entrance to the cathedral is the porch, with groin-vaulted ceiling, which projects from the S wall of the nave. The matching porch on the N side no longer survives apart from a smaller doorway, the inner arch of which is blocked (Manning 2000, 27). The choir (int. dims. 28.3m x c. 9m; wall T 1.5m) dates to the 1230s and is the earliest phase of the cathedral where the all the carved stonework is sandstone. It was lit by a sequence of lancet windows in the N and S walls with clerestorey quatrefoil windows, within segmental-arched embrasures with unusual curving sills, between the tops of the lancets. Only the lower portion of the three-light E window survives. There are two other windows, one looking N and the other S into the courtyard which separates the cathedral from Cormac's Chapel. There is a blocked-up doorway in the N wall which lead into a sacristy or chantry which no longer survives. At the E end of the S wall there is a piscina and W of this there is a sedilia and a tomb recess containing the effigy of Archbishop Miler Magrath. W of this tomb is a doorway, inserted in the post-medieval period, which led to a chamber or sacristy which no longer survives (Manning 2000, 25). According to Seymour (1910, 330-331) this chamber probably served as the chapter-house throughout the 17th century. The 15th-century crossing tower (int. dims. 15m x 15m) is carried on four 13th-century clustered banded columns with ornate limestone capitals. Overhead there is a ribbed vault which was largely reconstructed in 1875, having, according to tradition, been damaged when the bells were moved in the siege of 1647 (Manning 2000, 28). The crossing tower is lit by ogee-headed windows and the main chamber contains sculpted corbels bearing animal and human heads. The transepts (both c. 12m x 17m) running off the crossing tower to the N and S are contemporary with the crossing tower and nave and both are lit by three-light lancets which were lowered in height in the 15th century. A wall painting depicted the crucifixion has recently been restored in the S transept. The N transept has a simple openwork quatrefoil set into a round embrasure above the head of the central lancet. A series of pointed windows are set high in the E and W walls of both transepts. They are connected to each other by mural passages which themselves are accessible via two winding staircases on the N and S sides of the crossing tower. Facilitated by steep flights of ascending and descending stairs, these passages run through the walls of the transepts on all sides and down over the eastern tower arch and extend westwards into the sidewalls of the nave. Beneath the spiral stairs in the NW pier of the crossing there is an earlier rock cut well. Both transepts have side chapels on their E side. Those in the N transept form external projections and are each gabled and lit by twin lancet windows. The most northerly of the two is called the Apostles Chapel and the southern one is known as the Baptistry. The two vaulted chapels in the corresponding S transept dedicated to St. Brigid and the Blessed Virgin, are not additions but are simply created out of the wall thickness. Externally, the NE and SE angles of the S transept terminate in elaborate corner piers which have canopied niches for statuary and terminate, above the roof, in octagonal turrets with conical caps. The nave is unusually short (int. dims. L c. 15m x Wth 12m), perhaps having been shortened by the insertion of a tower house (TS061-025004-) at the W end by Archbishop Richard O'Hedian in the mid 15th century. There is a two-light window in the S wall of the nave, partially converted into a tomb niche, with 17th-century stucco decorating the embrasure. The residential tower at the W end of the nave is entered through a pointed doorway at the S end of the W wall. In the early 16th century, between 1504 and 1525, a second floor was built over the nave, it connected with the tower house and appears to have functioned as an upper hall (Stalley 1996, 312). Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 11 February 2013